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A lot of confusion surrounds when to get a mechanical watch cleaned and oiled....and folks typically say, I used to have one and it ran for decades without maintenance..

This could be true..watches did used to last, seemingly, forever. But there is a scientific/technical reason for this..

Early watches were slow beat movements. They beat at 18,000 BPH or 5 ticks per second. This means that the hairspring swung one complete arc, unlocking the pallet fork in one direction, and then back again, unlocking the fork in the other direction, causing the watch to tick, or move properly..

This is all caused by a mainspring that pulls on the gear-train constantly...the pallet jewels hold the escapement wheel in place and then locks and unlocks that wheel on each half swing of the hairspring, unwinding the mainspring.

Pretty simple...

But, as the quest for more stable and precise movements came about, along with better lubricants, it was found that faster beat movements were more stable, drifted less, and were easier to regulate. As these beats increased, the faster swing of almost twice as much in a 28,800 beat movement causes the oils to be slung off parts, and drain the mainspring power faster. The obvious result was a need for stronger, and longer mainsprings that exert more of a pull on the drive train to ensure a ~42-48 hr power reserve. In the case of super high beat movements such as the Zenith 36,000BPH 10 BPS movement, the mainspring is huge and the need for a more solid (less fluid) method of lubrication is paramount or it would beat itself to death in little time. It's just this need for different oils and larger mainsprings that Rolex reduced the speed on their Zenith modified movements so they could use their standard oils and parts in their watches..

So, in a nut shell: Today we have movements that move considerably faster, essentially throwing the lubricating oils around like never before, and we have stronger mainsprings pulling harder on the entire drive-train causing more need to ensure proper lubrication to avoid metal-to-metal disintegration of parts..

I think that it is more important than ever that we ensure that our mechanical, high-beat, watches get cleaned and oiled on a more regular basis than ever before.